MANSFIELD -- School Superintendent Brenda Hodges has resigned to avoid being a "distraction" amid allegations she plagiarized a commencement speech, according to a letter to the school committee posted to the school district's website Wednesday morning.

"I have given considerable thought as to my role within the school district in light of the recent commencement speech controversy. I believe that the school system can continue to make more progress if I am not a distraction," Hodges wrote in the letter to the school board dated July 16.

She wrote a second, longer letter to "parents, guardians and the Mansfield community" that was also posted to the district's website Wednesday morning.

Hodges submitted her "irrevocable resignation with the intent to retire" effective June 30, 2015. That is the same date her present contract expires.

But, she said in the letter to the school committee, she intends to go out on medical leave for treatment for a "longstanding injury" beginning Aug. 29.

Allegations began circulating on social media last month that Hodges had plagiarized the speech she delivered at the Mansfield High School graduation ceremony on June 8 from a speech delivered by U.S. Navy Admiral William McRaven at the University of Texas at Austin in May.

By early July, an online petition was circulating calling for Hodges' resignation.

Hodges told the Mansfield News, in a story published on June 27, that she did not use McRaven's speech but instead based hers on a speech she'd heard in May, 2013 in her home state of Oklahoma. She said she had permission from the author, a pastor, to use that speech.

In her July 16 letter to parents, she said the school committee verified her version of events.

"The school committee chair and vice chair have had an opportunity to speak with the author of that speech to discuss the message that he delivered. In addition, they have received an email from him stating that he gave his permission to me to use any thoughts or portions of his message," she wrote.

She also said the allegedly plagiarized passages appear in many other commencement speeches, as well.

"I have since learned that the points raised are fairly commonly addressed in a number of speeches across the country and surmise that a common speech template is available, since a Google search shows that certain key phrases appear in many commencement addresses in different parts of the country," she wrote to parents.

But, Hodges wrote, she should nonetheless have attributed the passages to the pastor who delivered the Oklahoma speech.

"While the source of my speech has been clearly established, it does not excuse the fact that I did not credit him as the source. For that, I apologize," she wrote.

Hodges wrote that she has been with the Mansfield School Department, in various positions, for 14 years.

Page 2 of 2 - "I leave Mansfield knowing that under my leadership and together with the support of the administrators, teachers and staff, we have provided Mansfield with a noteworthy reputation for academic excellence," Hodges wrote.